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Customer Printer Tips
Laser printers were designed for easy
maintenance and reliable, high-quality output. By occasionally taking
a few minutes to care for your printer, you can extend its life,
reduce service calls and ensure optimum, trouble-free operation
for many thousands of copies.
- Keep your printer clean.
- Record all persistent service
problems.
- Change the toner cartridge first.
- If the printer can’t receive
data, it’s likely to be a communication problem.
- When you have persistent jams,
they may be caused by a dirty machine.
- Don’t panic when you encounter
an unfamiliar noise or smell.
- An error message isn’t always
a major malfunction.
- When you call for service.
- Call us as early in the day as
possible.
- What is the main problem?
- Fill in the blanks.
- Keep your printer clean.
Most damage done to printers comes from an accumulation
of debris. Even electronic failures can begin with a dirty printer.
Only trained service personnel should access contact surfaces
to remove critical accumulations, but you can help by keeping
the machine clean, preventing toner and dust from building up
at the key points. Clean the interior of your machine each time
you change the toner cartridge. Use a damp cloth to remove dust
and debris, and a damp Q-Tip to access cavities. Take particular
care to clean all the rubber rollers you can reach. Dust that’s
left on the rollers bonds to the rubber as it oxidizes and makes
the rollers slick and dysfunctional. NEVER use alcohol or commercial
cleaners on rubber rollers. Use platen cleaner, if you have any
on hand. Don’t neglect the outside. The entire area around
and under the printer is inclined to accumulate dust and debris,
converting it to charged particles that are potentially dangerous
to the machine. Remove exterior dust and debris at least every
two to three months. The printer’s plastic case can be cleaned
with commercial cleaners such as Mr. Clean or Formula 409. Be
careful, however, not to let the cleaner penetrate the interior
of the machine. If debris are the primary cause of failures, toner
is the primary cause of debris. All toner cartridges will release
a small amount of toner into the machine. This is why it’s
important to clean the machine when you change the cartridge.
It’s also important that the density control of the machine
be properly set to prevent the machine from pulling too much toner
into itself. We all like dark print, but too dark is extremely
dangerous for both cartridge and machine. If you need help determining
how to properly adjust your printer, our customer service representatives
can guide you. If you find it useful to monitor toner consumption,
use the log provided on the last page of this booklet. Toner consumption
should be relatively consistent if the machine is adjusted properly.
- Record all persistent
service problems.
Our service technicians will record their visits
in the log provided, but their may be occasions where you will
need to chronicle service problems as well. For instance, should
you have persistent temporary errors or miscellaneous errors that
you are able to clear, record them so that our techs will have
an objective review of the machine’s history. (For example,
41 is a temporary error and 79 is a misc. error. Both may have
a suffix, such as 41.3, or 79.05). The Si series of printers keeps
a log of all error messages, so you will only need to record image
and communications failures if your printer demonstrates them.
If you need more logs, just give us a call. Although you can do
a lot for your printer, every machine eventually needs the attention
of a professional technician. Making the right decision will improve
office performance and save you money in the long run.
- Change the toner cartridge
first.
Unless the toner cartridge has damaged the machine
or is dumping toner into the machine, you can deal with toner
cartridge problems yourself. One simple rule: Always have a spare
toner cartridge! Without a spare, you can’t properly diagnose
a printer problem. Nor can you keep printing if all you have is
a defective cartridge.
- If the printer can’t
receive data, it’s likely to be a communications problem.
Test the printer’s interface and formatter
by entering data directly through the parallel port from a laptop
or other non-networked machine. Make sure you have selected the
correct printer, and that your drivers aren’t corrupted.
If you are using a simple print-sharer device, it may be causing
the problem. Less than one in twenty communications failures is
caused by a defective printer. Printers are simple machines that
do the same thing over and over. All of their software is hard-wired.
Your computer and its network, on the other hand, change a lot
every day. Chances are that one of those changes inadvertently
altered the environment and prevented data from being properly
formatted and interfaced with the printer. If you are able to
print at other printers, physically move the object printer to
that network address and switch the network cards. Only after
you have exhausted every alternative should you presume that the
printer is at fault.
- When you have a persistent
jams, they may be caused be a dirty machine.
It may just mean that you have done all you
can do. Persistent jams usually require the attention of a professional.
You may get by with a preventive maintenance cleaning, or you
may need to have a mechanical assembly replaced.
- Don’t panic when
you encounter an unfamiliar noise or smell.
Most noises are benign. They signify little or nothing. When left
alone, they frequently will go away or fade into the background
noise. For example, a new cartridge may squeak until it’s
broken in by 200 prints or so. Some noises are symptomatic of
serious problems, or are indicative of imminent failure. Having
annual preventive maintenance done on your printer will minimize
anything that can cause noise. Otherwise, call for service when
your printer produces a noise or a smell that’s out of the
ordinary.
- An error message isn’t
always a major malfunction.
There are all sorts of messages that the printer
can send you. There are condition statements such as READY or
ONLINE, prompts such as PAPER OUT and PRINTER OPEN, reset able
errors such as 13 PAPER JAM and 51 SERVICE (beam detect error),
and fatal errors like 50 SERVICE or 55 SERVICE. ·Write
down the message exactly! Frequently, customers tell us that their
printer displayed an error message, but that they don’t
know what it said. Without this information, we may not know which
part or parts to bring on-site to affect a repair. The first step
is always to record the exact error message. ·If the message
just asks you to do something, do it and see if the message clears.
Sometimes, messages are constant because the sensors are failed
or dirty, but usually they will clear. ·Many error messages
can be reset. With jam messages, most machines will reset after
you open the machine, clear the jam, and then close it again.
Other problems may require you to press a button. ·Finally,
if no other action reactivates the machine, power cycle and start
over. Turn the machine off, wait a few seconds, and then turn
it on again. ·If you had a 50 SERVICE error, wait ten minutes
or so before turning the machine back on. ·Confronted with
a persistent error, call us for prompt professional service.
- When you call for service
By the time you get around to calling for service,
you may be pulling your hair out in frustration. However, the
quality of the information you give us will have a direct impact
on how quickly we can get you back up and running. Relax. The
machine will soon be fixed as good as new.
- Call us as early in
the day as possible.
Our goal is to arrive at your site as quickly
as possible after you’ve called us for service. The earlier
in the day we hear from you, the faster we’ll be able to
respond. If you discover a problem after our normal business hours,
call and leave a detailed message, so that one of our service
representatives can contact you first thing the following morning.
- What is the main
problem?
You may have a lot of information to offer about
what the machine is doing. However, the most important fact you
can tell us is the primary problem that’s preventing you
from getting your work done. In other words, what isn’t
happening that should be happening? Try to remember whether anything
changed or happened just prior to the first incidence of the problem.
There are six different types of problems that might prompt you
to call us: ·Power problems-turn the machine on and nothing
happens. ·Communications Problems-send a file to the printer
and it doesn’t print. ·Jams-paper isn’t feeding
through the machine properly. ·Image-what is on the paper
isn’t what was on your screen (see some of the examples
in this book). ·Noises-the machine is making a noise serious
enough to interrupt the work-flow. Error Message-the machine’s
operation has been interrupted by an error message.
- Fill in the blanks.
You can help us a great deal by giving us as
much information as possible about how your printer is acting
up. For instance, a paper jam will generate an error message.
Where in the machine did the leading edge of the paper stop? What
was the exact error message? Is the error predictable, or does
it occur only every so often? Please save printed copies if there
is an image problem. If the paper is coming out deformed, keeping
samples of it. The more our technician has to work with, the faster
he’ll be able to get the machine back up and running.
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